Little Soap Details You Miss...

[ChiTownBoi03]

I miss the old soap commercials in the late 80s, early 90s and yeah CBS was quite campy with those things. "Stay tuned...for a Bold & Beautiful moment!"

I miss how DAYS used to end with the words DAYS OF OUR LIVES in the eery yellow font, frozen on the last scene, usually a characters shocked face or something. Heck, I even missed the credits over the hourglass with the ending theme music

[EricMontreal22]

I think things like good storytelling are MAJOR details (that yes I miss)

[brimike]

I miss lines thrown in now and then where a character either mentioned a long off-canvased character ("So-and-so called to wish me a happy birthday!") or you could see someone on a one-sided call with a long off-canvased character as the scene was starting ("Okay, so-and-so -- I love you too. [hangs up] Honey, that was..."), without any hint or assumption they were coming back to the show. It just felt like it tied together years of history and reminded long time viewers of the community they're invested in.

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed there 100%. I think it's insulting when characters don't mention at all characters, like sons or daughters, that we know they'd still connect with

[MarkH]

Or two previous vasectomies.

[brimike]

:lol:

"It didn't take"

[LoveDays]

I agree with you so much! I definitely miss the promos from the 80s with the jingles. Definitely more creative than the promos that they have or use for soaps now. The little things that daytime use to do in the past are the things that I miss. The advertisements made you want to watch. I also loved the closing credits on soaps in the past. I can't stand how the soaps go off now. They are always advertising for primetime shows, but primetime is rarely promoting daytime.

[All My Shadows]

I, too, miss long closing credits. Some of my best memories are of dark, rainy days, walking through my grandma's house, with the full version of "Hold on to Love" playing on the TV. It's such a small, small thing, but to this day, every time I hear that song, it takes me back.

I don't know how other soaps of the time were, but one of the small things I loved about "Dark Shadows" was how, because it was live, there would always be mistakes. Boom microphones falling into the shot every now then, people flubbing up on lines, that sort of thing. The almost cheap look of the show made it more intimate for me for some reason, like I was right there in the studio watching, or like it was being done on the stage.

[cct]

I miss the Daytime Dilemmas that ABCD had in the 80s for a while.

I too miss the "cameo" scenes. Had forgotten all about these until the other day. So does that mean I really miss them?

I miss "On the Next..." already. Scenes from the Next are a big deal in my house. At least the bumper to let me know my show's over instead of making sure we've hit the :56 mark on my DVR.

I miss the ENORMOUS OPPORTUNITIES ABC squandered when Desperate and Grey's flew to the top of the ratings to promote their Daytime soaps in prime time. I could hear them now..."If you think Bree Van de Kamp is trying hard to hold it all together, meet Annie Lavery...." OH well, that time has passed, as both GA and DH are past their prime and ABC PrimeTime's fortunes are turning. Sigh...

Ok, maybe that last one doesn't count.

[Cashton]

Remember in the 90's how the CBS promos were so cool? You had Clarence chatting up that mysery lady and getting all the gossip in the back of his limo? Or how bout..

"Don't blink, Sheila! And don't look away.." with the flames on the titles.

I just loved those. Thank GOD for YouTube! Sucks that Viacom is suing them. So many people get to catch up on old nostalgia that CBS/Viacom have NO intention of releasing on DVD!

[MichaelGL]

I miss, hmm what you call them, exterior shots? B&B ususally does it these days either showing the Logan or Forrester mansions at the beginning of each episode. GL used to do them and I absolutely adored it. Sometimes it would be the Spaulding mansion, the Springfield Police Department, or even Spaulding Enterprises. I miss those.

I also miss closing credits with their long sweeping scores, and the announcers. With GL, I especially miss when the whole cast and crew would gather together for the Christmas episode and wave and sing to us as the credits would role.

Long 8 minute scenes are really seldom seen in soaps today, and I do miss them. I miss what we the viewer would get from those scenes, the explanation of character motivations and etc. OLTL does this occasionally.

[sheilaforever]

I miss this the most, too.

Even if stories seemed far-fetched in the beginning, they could often impress you because for the character his/her actions made perfect sense.

Y&R (and to a lesser quicker pace extent B& used to be above this malfunction to go plot-heavy until very recent years. Thanks Babs Bloom, Steve Kent and LML for rectifying this.

[EricMontreal22]

LOL who are we refering to?

"I too miss the "cameo" scenes. Had forgotten all about these until the other day. So does that mean I really miss them? "

YES it does I dunno jsut the fact the writers would map out a little scene means a lot to me. I have an ep of AMC in 83 involving the lesbian story around Xmas time and the lesbian doctor (forget her name--Dr Lynn?) has a sad cameo of her all alone at Christmas looking at the tree, etc but nothing to do.

[All My Shadows]

I think the term they use for those scenes is "beauty shots." They show the day's characters doing "normal" things that are too boring to be in the actual show, liking washing dishes, playing around with a piano, reading a book, stuff like that. In one of the 1971 episodes of AMC that SOAPnet aired for the Lucci marathon, the closing credits were seen over footage of Erica and Mona drinking coffee (it looks like coffee), ending with Mona going to the sink to wash her cup.

[EricMontreal22]

It is coffee--Mona calls it as such in the actual episode Love those really old ones--thanks to I Love Lucci and Daytime to Remember, I have three from 1970-71 on DVD-R

And I think you're right they are beauty shots